Los Angeles Chargers general manager Tom Telesco, center, introduces Anthony Lynn, right, as the team’s new head coach, as president of football operations John Spanos looks on during an NFL football news conference in Carson, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Kelvin Kuo)

SAN DIEGO >> Melvin Gordon was waiting for a call. But this was the wrong call.

Two years ago, the running back sat inside the green room at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre waiting for his future to unfold. He had spent his entire life in Wisconsin, growing up in Kenosha before becoming a unanimous All-American at Wisconsin. Just weeks after his 22nd birthday, he was set to move away, bound for whatever team saw fit to select him in the 2015 NFL Draft.

Shortly before the event began, Gordon’s phone buzzed. But instead of an NFL general manager or coach, it was one of his friend’s parents — making an ill-timed decision during an already emotional situation.

“I was like, ‘I know I’m not going first, but …’ You know what I’m saying?” Gordon said this week. “But after that point, I was just upset. Just wanted to know where I was going.”

He didn’t wait too much longer. The Chargers traded up two spots to draft him at No. 15 overall. Last season he made his first Pro Bowl.

Come Thursday evening, the Bolts will again get their turn to fulfill someone’s professional ambitions. Barring a trade, they’ll do so at No. 7, their second consecutive Top 10 pick.

The Chargers’ brass has been reticent about their draft plans, but general manager Tom Telesco said this week that the talent available this year skews toward defense.

That happens to be the side of the ball that will see more significant change to the playbook. New coach Anthony Lynn retained offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, maintaining stability for quarterback Philip Rivers, but hired Gus Bradley to oversee a switch to a 4-3 scheme.

Bradley is perhaps best known for his work in Seattle, where he helped construct a defense that featured the “Legion of Boom” secondary. It is one reason why many pundits have the Chargers selecting a safety, LSU’s Jamal Adams or Ohio State’s Malik Hooker.

Whether or not the Bolts’ big board jibes with mock drafts remains to be seen. The team has spent months narrowing down its list to a pool of about 200 draftable players. It has run through different draft scenarios; hashing out its own disparate evaluations and trying to account for how others around the league might affect their own plans.

All that preparation, Telesco said, can make draft day itself relatively quiet.

“Unless somebody goes off right before we pick that I wanted or we wanted,” he added. “Then I take a tennis ball and throw it against the wall.”

There’s plenty of uncertainty for the players, too. Last year, Hunter Henry entered the draft as the top tight end available, but he wasn’t sure whether he would go late in the first round or fall into the second.

“So we had two parties,” Henry said. “Two get-togethers, just in case I did go the first night. That was definitely rough, just kind of sitting there. The nerves, the anxiousness. All these people at my house, too. So it’s like, ‘Oh dang, all these people came. What if I don’t get picked?’

“And then I ended up not getting picked.”

Luckily, he was accompanied by family and friends, all of whom happily turned up again the next day. Four picks into the second round, at No. 35 overall, the Bolts drafted Henry, and had their bet pay off when he caught eight touchdowns as a rookie. No tight end in the league pulled in more.

His advice for this year’s soon-to-be pros?

“Just try to soak up as much as you can,” Henry said. “It’s going to be wild.”

New broadcast partners

The “Fight for L.A.” continues, this time on television screens and airwaves.

On Wednesday, the Chargers announced that they have reached agreements with new media partners: KABC-TV (Channel 7) and iHeartMedia Los Angeles for English broadcasts, and KAZA-TV Azteca America 54 and KFWB 980 AM for Spanish.

KABC-TV and KAZA-TV will televise all exhibition games as well as Chargers’ programming throughout the year. KFI AM-640 and KFWB 980 AM will carry games through the entire season.

Jack Wang covers the Chargers, the latest NFL team to relocate to Los Angeles. He previously covered the Rams, and also spent four years on the UCLA beat, a strange period in which the Bruins' football program often outpaced their basketball team. He is a proud graduate of UC Berkeley, where he spent most of his time in The Daily Californian offices in Eshleman Hall — a building that did not become earthquake-safe until after his time on campus.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.